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Guest
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baldrax
baldrax
·
I am a fan of both Unofficial Mods and "vanilla TaleSpire" 
and I do believe that the wording of Community content, verses 
modding has been confusing up until this point, this is a 
step in the right direction IMO.
Any time you download software, of any kind, you put yourself at risk.
I do believe that the current mods and creators of those mods, up to now, intend no real harm to anyone, but that is a risk.
I, myself, author a toolset that could do anything I want on a users system. I do not take that lightly. I do my best, whether the user is aware or not, to protect them and their data. But if one intended, they could do harm.
I could also expose someone to harm unintentionally and if that happened I would be forever regretful. But we do not know what we do not know.
I guess the message is, learn as much as you can about the software you are downloading, no matter what the source.

Be informed, be safe. And most of all, have fun.
thelordashes
User
thelordashes
User ·
I am very disappointed with BR's post. If BR is going to post, they should try to get the fact correct.

The "Social Experiment Plugin" started as a test to see how many people just download a ton of plugins without knowing what they do and then, when half of them don't work because they are clearly marked as broken since some BR update, they demand support and want fixes, wasting the community's time. The "Social Experiment Plugin" had clear indication "Do not download me".

When STAT MESSAGING plugin was officially made OBSOLETE (it was being phased out long before Taleweaver, was made obsolete since the Taleweaver update, but marked officially obsolete later) it was marked as OBSOLETE in many different ways (Status Plugin post, Docs, Taleweaver Page, Taleweaver Icon, R2ModMan Description, R2ModMan Icon, Logs). Since use of the DEAD STAT MESSAGING plugin, despite the instructions not to use, would cause Talespire to run at a hobble and cause other plugins to stop working (because it was constantly generating exceptions which was eating CPU), measures needed to be taken to ensure that users did not run with this DEAD PLUGIN because that would just get a ton of complaints about Talepsire. As such the "Social Experiment Plugin" was added to this DEAD PLUGIN as a dependency because it did prevent
Talespire from being run in crippled mode.

It should be noted that a condition of the server rules for this community discord server is that users verify the pinned messages which in turn indicated to always check the status of plugins prior to a session because plugins can stop working at any time due to BR updates.

As such the only users that were affected by the Hard Drive prank are those that violated the community server rules, ignored all of the indications that a plugin should not be used, and decided to run it anyway against the instructions of the creator. Any user that was following the server rules, would have seen the notice that the plugin was not to be used, would have removed it, and thus would never have seen this prank.

As such the statement of "This meant that when regular players who use any of the thirty-eight affected mods pulled the latest updates, they would fall victim to this 'jape'" is completely a lie on multiple levels.

1. Only the DEAD PLUGIN (STAT MESSAGING) has the "Social Experiment Plugin" as a dependency and the DEAD PLUGIN (STAT MESSAGING) is not a dependency for any working plugin. I have no idea where this supposed 38 number comes from but it is totally a fabrication.

Note: There may be some ancient plugin that still use Stat Messaging but those plugins would be missing Taleweaver and Seats updates which means they would not be functional anyway. 

2. Users are not getting this message because they are adding Lord Ashes plugins, they are getting it because they are not removing Lord Ashes' plugin which have been identified as Obsolete in multiple ways and in the process they are violating the discord server rules.

There are two types of modders. Those that create mods and then don't support them. When their mods don't work and potentially cause problems, they let the users figure it out on their own. This causes users to run back to the community asking a lot of questions. I am even fielding support question for such mods because the original mod creator doesn't provide any support to his/her broken plugins. The alternative is to have the mods try to detect inappropriate use of the mod and tell the users, in a humorous way, that they have violated the terms and conditions of the community. This is the path I chose because it makes it quite obvious to the users that they screwed up.

thelordashes
User
thelordashes
User ·
This total lack of factual reporting just makes me want to remove all of my plugins from Thunderstore and make them available only to users that actually follow the community rules.

However, I don't want to complicate things for the loyal users that can follow instructions, can observer when multiple indicators say to not use a plugin, and have a sense of humor, so I will be adding the Lord Ashes License Agreement to my plugin. It will be a one time acceptance of terms & conditions whose acceptance will be necessary to run any Lord Ashes plugins. Once you accept the terms you will be able to run any of Lord Ashes plugin (unless a specific plugin dictates otherwise). These conditions will clearly indicate what you can expect to find in Lord Ashes plugins. User will then have the knowledge to either accept my style or not. The educated choice will be their. If the user does not agree to the terms, all Lord Ashes plugin will be disabled at runtime.
demongund
demongund
·
Oh, look at that, LordAshes doubled down on an indefensible and silly position. Seriously, it is easier to sympathize and apologize.

Sometimes the problem IS you.

I particularly like the idea of your plugins being removed and iron curtain of your reign being lifted.
thelordashes
User
thelordashes
User ·
I fully agree with your and I am waiting for an apology.
Users installed my plugins of their own free will, misused them, and got slapped on the wrist for it. When you install any software, you willingly place yourself at the mercy of the software developer. Period. I have done my due diligence in trying to prevent users from using plugins that are dead and will bake their system but if user choose to disregard the rules of the community server, ignore the multiple signs saying not to do something, and do it anyway then that is on them - not me.

If you have an issue with this, it is a simple matter to remove my plugins. No one is forcing you to use them. There is no iron curtain of reign because the users have all the power. I can't make you install or remove plugins.

Remove my plugins, write you own, problem solved. :D

What have you done for the Talespire Modding Community besides contribute to these verbal spats? I'm trying to find your plugins on Thunderstore but I don't see them. ;-)
  
thelordashes
User
thelordashes
User ·
I believe I have located the source of BR's mis-information. The "Social Experiment Plugin" is the Hard Drive Prank. There is only ONE plugin that has it as a dependency - the dead STAT MESSAGING plugin.

I believe someone did a quick check to see how many plugins use STAT MESSAGING which shows as 38 plugins on Thunderstore.

However, what the researcher did not notice is:

1. Eight of those plugins aren't mine. Some of those aren't even plugins they are mega packs that users have created. I have no control over those beyond marking a plugin as dead in 6 or so ways.

2. The list looks at all versions of the plugin. Yes, many plugins used to use STAT MESSAGING in the past but no plugin has used STAT MESSAGING since the Taleweaver update. No currently working plugins use it. So unless the user is running a mega pack created by others (which I have not control over) or the user has pre-Taleweaver plugins (which would not work anyways) then they would not need STAT MESSAGING.
CULTxicycalm
User
CULTxicycalm
User ·
Dudes we’re like 20 people in this community. It’s stupid to divide it further. If you need someone to hate, hate me, I am used to it.